Rotherham boss Matt Hamshaw proud after beating Plymouth

Rotherham manager Matt Hamshaw felt pride and relief as his side got a morale-boosting 1-0 win against Plymouth.

Four straight losses had heaved the pressure on Hamshaw and sank the Millers deep into a relegation battle.

Hamshaw is seeing positive signs that his team are going to fight their way out of it.

He said: “Where we are in the league table you could feel that a little bit with the anxiety.

“It would have been an injustice had we not got the three points.

“I thought you saw that connection between the team and the fans come back. That is massive.

“We need to build on it and it’s a big game again on Tuesday.”

Joe Rafferty got Rotherham off to the perfect start after just seven minutes as he cleverly got a touch on Dru Yearwood’s strike to direct it beyond Luca Ashby-Hammond.

Rotherham frontman Sam Nombe had two big chances to double the lead before the break but was thwarted on both occasions by the Plymouth goalkeeper.

Plymouth piled on the pressure at times in the second half but Rotherham missed a host of chances to make the victory more secure.

Hamshaw added: “I get that it’s been tough for every Rotherham United fan and I know how much it means to them and myself. That is how we want our team to play.

“We were desperate for a win. I think the last two performances were encouraging without probably much of a goal threat.

“But if you were a neutral coming to the game today you would be disappointed that Rotherham did not win three or four or five nil.

“I thought we had great chances and showed a lot of attacking threat.”

Argyle head coach Tom Cleverley was frustrated his side could not pick up points to push them into the play-off picture.

He said: “I wouldn’t say I was angry because I have got a group of players who are giving everything and a few of them have probably needed rotating.

“We have had two weeks of four away games and five games in total just looked like it caught up with us.

“It’s a phase of the game we have struggled a little bit with, chasing games, and when we are having more of the ball and we are ringing their box.

“We need to have that quality to make sure we break defences down. We need to crack that one.

“We are disappointed because if we had won then we would really be in the conversation.”